


I Won’t Leave You

by kaulayau



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Feels, Bodyswap, Family Fluff, Force Bond (Star Wars), Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 13:54:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13660377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaulayau/pseuds/kaulayau
Summary: If you only believe it when you see it, you'll never make it through the night.





	I Won’t Leave You

**Author's Note:**

> I'm very late on this challenge
> 
> and this series is my lifeblood it makes no sense non-chronologically it is essentially plotless right now
> 
> (Edit: I have deleted the series)
> 
> but still
> 
> february ficlet day 5: bodyswap
> 
> please enjoy! thank you!

It’s a story they told too often — if Luke cried, even if she was miles away, Leia would have tears flowing in dewdrops down her cheeks. They would laugh as if they were in the same room — but Leia was at her father’s office that day, and Luke was fixing cars with Uncle Owen. They spoke to the corners of kitchens as if they were sentient. One would drink if one was thirsty. One would eat if one was hungry.

It was just how it worked. They couldn’t control it and didn’t know if they wanted to.

* * *

Like.

When Luke shattered his hand in the tenth grade, Leia screamed and kicked and shouted until they stuck anesthesia in him two hours later.

When Leia fell into Paradox Lake after junior year, Luke coughed and spat and couldn’t breathe until they pulled her out and pumped at her chest.

Luke and Leia. Leia and Luke. Separated, yet inseparable. Inseparable, yet separated. It really depended on who was there.

At the time, her wrist looked crooked. It was almost as if he were drenched.

* * *

“Hey, kid,” Han said once, arms crossed, that stark, delinquent expression on his face, “if I hit you, will she feel it?”

And the answer? Obvious.

* * *

(He was Leia’s first and last kiss.)

* * *

(And Luke’s, for that matter.)

* * *

But really, it was — weird, this thing they had. All this time and neither of them can figure out what the damage was.

* * *

The first time they met was an easy, catastrophic accident, like opening a door to let in a blizzard. Everything was chaos, everything was flurried, everything was _there_ , and it was _always_ there. 

And it made sense at the time. But not so much now.

* * *

No one could tell them apart for the longest time, even if Luke was a typical golden boy and Leia acted the princess when she didn’t have to. “Luke,” said the adults, the teachers, the classmates. Even before the two of them found out that the other existed. “No, no, I mean — Leia. I mean — I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I called you that. You probably don’t even know who I’m talking about.”

It was confusing, up until it wasn’t, evidently. Up until they managed to put the pieces together.

* * *

Their mother died when they were born. Complications, careless doctors, exhaustion, one social worker even implied something less appetizing — the explanations were fuzzy.

But they all told them the same thing. “She wanted you to live apart — for your own safety.” That was why. “You’ll go to the same school, live in the same town — but you have to live in different households. It was your mother’s final wish.”

* * *

Young people didn’t ask the questions that mattered.

* * *

Leia hated being helpless. It was something almost expected of her, and that was another thing she hated — expectations.

* * *

 Luke wanted more than this. He wanted to jump, he wanted to take off — he wanted to see the twin suns as they were.

* * *

The first time they _knew_ it happened, they were freshmen in high school. Leia wished she’d hit five feet tall, kept her frizzy hair in check, and liked a GPA over four. Luke ran laps on the track for fun, laughed when it wasn’t appropriate, and wasn’t sure exactly how to prove himself at that point. 

They didn’t know if anything was possible.

Leia was talking with Aunt Beru and Luke was sitting with his mother. Or — Luke was talking with Aunt Beru and Leia was sitting with her mother. That was probably how it went on the outside.

It happened so naturally, like putting on an old pair of shoes, or grinning at a bad joke, or embracing a loved one.

But they still didn’t understand, so they had to see each other. It was like that, then. If they didn’t get something, they’d see each other. They met as fast and as soon as they could.

It’s odd to see yourself through mirrors not made of glass.

* * *

Maybe this happened when they were just children. Maybe that was why the phenomenon was so familiar. Maybe this explained the mixing-up, or the crying, or talking in the corner, but they couldn’t justify what they didn’t remember much.

* * *

It happened again three years later — but maybe it wasn’t the second time. Leia had just met Lando Calrissian in the Cafeteria and Luke was on the roof of the school.

They knew she would have come to him even if it _didn’t_ happen. 

* * *

Time changed. Luke was taken in by Ben Kenobi, and Leia won silver and bronze on every competition she signed up for. Things were different.

* * *

It was etched in fate. They ended up going to the same college — neither of them would have survived without each other. Or, maybe they would have — it wouldn’t have been very pretty.

* * *

There was a car accident, and Leia didn’t have parents anymore. People say it was a hit and run, but no one can tell for sure.

They knew that Luke wished he had known them better than he had, but then the guests started hugging him, and they realized it happened again. Sometimes comfort came in crooked ways.

* * *

This doesn’t happen to them any more.

In fact, they haven’t spoken in years.


End file.
